Ukrainian Member of Parliament from the Servant of the People Party Iryna Vereshchuk says she sees no problem if leaders of the Ukrainian churches join meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas in Minsk.
"If this helps the process – then yes. I believe we should expand the representation as much as needed and in the way it is acceptable to the public," she said in an interview for the Ukrainian news outlet Obozrevatel.
According to Vereshchuk, there are religious leaders in Ukraine who could facilitate the dialogue. "If this is [Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine] Epifaniy (Epiphanius) or [Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church] Mr. [Sviatoslav] Shevchuk – I think it certainly won't do much harm," she said.
Responding to the host's comment that the presence of those persons in the TCG might become a "hot-button issue" to the so-called "Donbas republics," who are vocal advocates for the Moscow Patriarchate, the MP assured she did not see any problem.
"In the end, we are talking with Russia, it is a party to the conflict and is responsible for everything that has been happening in the temporarily occupied part of Donbas," she added.
